


Adding Two and Two

by Iris_Celeno



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: F/M, Female Friendship, Fluffy Ending, Secret Relationship, The residents have each other's back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 12:05:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6050992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iris_Celeno/pseuds/Iris_Celeno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 1x17, Malaya knows. This is how and when she learned about Neal/Christa.<br/>It all started with someone hitting on our favorite blond doctor...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adding Two and Two

**Author's Note:**

> Non beta-ed, please forgive any mistake you might find.

Dr.Malaya Pineda wiped the sweat off her forehead, her arms sore after she practiced CPR for ten minutes on a crashing accident victim. She remembered the moment when the pulse picked up again, and smiled. This was good, useful pain. 

She looked around the lobby. They were back in code green but the place was still crowded. Doctors, cops, nurses, patients, paramedics were part of a neverending ballet. This shift had been frantic from the first second on, and now that things finally calmed down she needed a little chat with friends...fine, she needed to whine, just a tiny bit. Angus was nowhere in sight, she had vaguely heard his brother send him to Radiology a while ago. Talking about Mike Leighton, he was discussing with Jesse, Dr.Guthrie and Dr.Rorish in front of Trauma One. No sign of Mario around, either...

She finally spotted Christa, who exited Trauma Two, stopped in front of the counter and began to fill in a chart. Malaya was about to address her when one of the cops still hanging around left his group and beat her to it.

“Dr. Lorenson?” 

“Yes?” she lifted her head, smiling with her customary amability.

“Your shift is over in a few minutes, and I wondered...would you like to grab a coffee?”

 __Good for you, girlfriend, Malaya thought. She wasn't into men but objectively, the guy was handsome. Tall, muscular, square-jawed, and his green eyes were gentle. He had been very kind and patient with the mugging victim whom he interrogated while she and Christa treated her, about an hour earlier. He was the type of all-American, wholesome, dependable guy who she completely could see her friend with.

Christa's smile didn't vane, yet she answered: “No, thank you.”

That's how you turned people down. Nicely, but clearly. Without giving them a reason, without justifying yourself. The thought insinuated in a corner of her brain before she could block it, and Malaya fought off a shudder of fear as she felt the flashback coming. Taking a step back, she bumped into Dr Hudson, who was on his way to the white board with a chart in hands. By sheer luck, the incident startled her and it pushed the darkness away.  
She was about to apologize to the newly-minted surgeon but her words died on the tip of her tongue.

“Maybe we could go out another time, then?” the officer was trying.

Hudson's head jerked up, his eyes flipping between Christa and the guy and they weren't dark only because of their color. She guessed that's what you called a hawkish stare.

There was more than annoyance here. Was it _jealousy_? 

“I'm flattered, but I'm seeing someone,” her friend stated on a definite tone.

Malaya didn't listen to the cop biding his leave on an apology, her attention focused on Hudson. He had reported his glance to his chart, and with his head bowed she couldn't read his expression. But she would have bet against the bank that the corners of his lips were curved up.

Oh wow. 

Prince Charming had a little thing for _Christa_. Wait until she told Angus!

Mario passed by, dropping a chart on the counter.

“'I'm seeing someone'...the oldest, lamest excuse in the world,” he smirked. “I knew you had it in you, Lorenson. You can lie with the most innocent face. You almost had me convinced.”

Christa shrugged good-naturedly and signed her chart without gracing him with another answer.

Oh wow.

Christa _was_ seeing someone, Malaya realized all of a sudden.

Mario was wrong, she was telling the truth. Her friend always avoided lies unless she had no other choice, but some of her silences said a world to those who knew how to listen. And her keeping mum right now? It was textbook Christa Lorenson brand of evasion.

She was seeing someone and she had never said a word about it, not even two days ago when they had drinks and a girl talk at Hector's.  
Malaya felt a little pang of hurt. Yes, for someone who wore her heart on her sleeve, Christa was actually quite secretive, about her past marriage especially. Yes, she wasn't as close to her as she was to Angus. But still. She had confided a lot in her older friend, including about Carla. She had thought that trust went both ways between them whereas obviously, it didn't. And it stung.

“What do you think, doctor Hudson?” Mario asked, not letting the matter go. He was in full brat mode, as often when he was exhausted by end of shift. Nevertheless, it lacked the bite it used to have at the beginning of their residency. He was now the troublemaking brother of their little gang, and since Christa was the big sister and the most immune to his provocations, it was always her he tried to rile up. “Should we admire doctor Lorenson's skills in the art of not telling the truth?”

“I think that Mr Lopez is waiting for you to use your skills in the art of medecine on his CT scan before I take him upstairs, doctor Savetti...” their senior answered, quite tersely.

Yet, as he let his voice trail, a little smirk replaced the surgeon's frown. Malaya stifled a giggle. He had done it on purpose, to make Mario squirm a bit. Her fellow resident was probably more afraid of Dr.Hudson's wrath than of Dr.Rorish's, and the former was perfectly aware of it. 

“...and that we should admire doctor Lorenson,” he finished, deadpan.

Christa shook her head with a chuckle and placed her chart on the rack, Mario grabbed the CT scan results and left to attend his patient on a relieved guffaw, and Hudson turned around to inspect the white board. 

As for Malaya, she was trying her best not to gape or let her eyes widen until they reached the size of saucers. Yet somehow, she wasn't sure she was doing a good job at it. 

One second. It had lasted only one second, if she hadn't actively looked for it she would have missed it. 

For one second, Hudson and Christa's eyes had met and his gaze had turned warm, soft...intimate. Yes, that was the word, intimate. You didn't look like that at someone you had a mere crush on, not if you didn't know they'd welcome it. You looked like that at someone you belonged to, someone you were certain belonged to you. 

Oh wow. 

Christa was seeing someone, and that someone was Neal freaking Hudson. 

Her shocked mind began to replay in fast-forward mode every interaction she ever had witnessed between her friend and the surgeon, leaving her with only one question. How in hell did she manage to stay so blind to something so blatantly obvious?

“Malaya?” 

Her friends's low voice just behind her ear startled her. 

“I know you prefer not be asked, but are you OK?” 

“Yes, yes I'm fine,” she provided automatically. 

It didn't erase the concern in the blond resident's eyes. Oh, Malaya, she scolded herself inwardly. You had to space out like an idiot, and now she thinks you're having a flashback at best, an aneurism at worst. 

“I'm fine, really. I think that my brain just disconnected, after today's shift,” she added with a sincere smile.

“Oh...yeah, tell me about it,” Christa sighed, patting softly her shoulder.

Her relief was so clear and her touch so motherly that Malaya regretted feeling betrayed earlier. How childish of her, she thought as she watched her friend go. 

Of course, Christa didn't tell her she was seeing someone, because she couldn't tell her who. It wasn't a question of trust or frienship. Malaya understood all the better because she remembered how horrible it was at the beginning of her relationship with Carla. The constant attention, the pressure, the gossip...She wasn't even a resident then, nor Carla an attending. If HR had wind of this, both Christa and Dr Hudson's careers could be compromised.

Ah, damn. She couldn't tell Angus. He was unable to dissimulate, would give them away within five minutes and would feel terrible about it.

As if Christa and Neal Hudson being an item wasn't big enough in itself, the inability to share it with anyone made it even worse. Hence, her discovery was still at the forefront of her thoughts an hour later, while she changed in the locker room. Mario and Christa were already there when she arrived, and the latter was almost ready to go.

“Hey, people, what about drinks?” Angus asked, coming in. “This was pure hell, I need to vent.”

“I'm in,” Mario announced. 

“Sorry, I have other plans,” Christa smiled, grabbing her handbag and closing her locker's door with a neat thud. 

“Come on, Christa! It's been a while,” Angus insisted. 

“Oh, but don't you know? Our very own Dr Lorenson is seeing someone,” Mario mocked, still in brat mode.

The joke was lost on Angus, who did a double take. “Really?”

Like earlier, Christa shrugged with a smile, but Malaya could feel that she was ill-at-ease. She didn't want to lie to them, but she couldn't disclose her relationship either. 

“Christa and I have plans, actually,” she intervened, ignoring the surprise that flashed briefly on the blonde's face. Thankfully, Angus was looking at her, not at Christa, and Mario was changing clothes on the other side, behind the central rows of lockers, so neither of them were able to catch her reaction. 

“You already had your girl night two days ago!” Angus whined, moving to his own locker, next to Mario's.

“I need to talk,” Malaya provided without thinking, and then she feared that her best friend would worry about her or feel excluded. “To another woman. Nothing serious. But you guys don't want to know the details.”

She cringed hearing herself, and Christa was looking at her as if she had two heads. Yes, it sounded a little too junior high school. 

“Ew, no we don't,” Mario laughed, while Angus guffawed loudly.

But somehow, men would be boys, and junior high school always did the trick. 

“Let's go, Christa,” Malaya said, taking her arm and trying to sound flippant. 

Her friend acquiesced silently and followed her. They walked side by side, without speaking, in the loud and busy flow of doctors, cops, nurses and patients, until they reached the area of the exterior parking lot that was reserved for the use of personnel. Malaya didn't manage to go back to the garage yet. She had tried twice and it had ended on a panic attack.  
In the light of dawn, she noticed Christa's car, and Angus's, and Mario's old and dying pick-up truck, and she squeezed her colleague's arm tighter. Her friends parked there, now that she did. 

“We have each other's back,” she smiled. 

Christa stopped on her tracks, turned to look at her with an uneasy light in her eyes. “Malaya...”

“I know. I know you don't want to lie.”

The blonde stared at her, her blue gaze relieved and rueful at once. She took her hands in hers. 

“Thank you,” she murmured. 

“Everything's all right?” an unmistakable British voice asked from behind them. 

That's when Malaya noticed that Dr Hudson's car was there, too. _Someone_ had talked to her boyfriend about Malaya's new parking habits. She had always known the surgeon to be kind, but she was very touched all the same by his joining her little personal guard.

Christa answered him with a ten thousand watts smile.

“Yes. Malaya and I are going to grab drinks,” she added, with a meaningful glance. There was a touch of contrition, obviously because she was cancelling whatever plans they had without notice. 

He didn't miss a beat, his gaze conveying his understanding. 

“I hope you're doing all right, Malaya,” he told her with a touch of concern.

“I'm OK,” she smiled. “But I'm actually exhausted. Finally, I don't think I'll be able to stay awake longer than the time I need to drive home. Sorry, Christa.”

“No, come on !” her friend insisted with a sincerity that warmed Malaya's heart. Christa couldn't be with Hudson for very long, and after shift the only thing she aspired to was probably to go back home with him. And yet, her protests were genuine. “Don't stay alone after a shift like this one.” 

“I won't feel alone, I'll be sleeping,” she opposed on a tone that said she wouldn't budge.

“Or at least, join Angus and Mario...”

Malaya stared at Christa, a brow raised. _I'm your alibi, remember?_

“Let's have breakfast at your place, at least.” Christa refused to budge, too, and this time she fought dirty, going with the puppy-dog eyes.

“I see,” Dr Hudson cut off suddenly, startling them. He had an amused smile on his face, smile that turned tender when his gaze fell upon Christa. 

Then, he passed an arm around her waist and attracted her close to him.

Malaya frantically looked around. There was no one but them here right now, most of the employees used the garage, but if Mario and Angus showed up...or if anyone...

“HR knows,” the surgeon informed her calmly. “Thank you, Malaya.”

Oh wow. Her gaze turned to Christa, who looked as stunned as she was herself. They had filled the form already? Oh wow, triple wow.

“Neal...” 

“We get to tell people on our terms, don't we?” he grinned. “Well, I think this qualifies as our terms.”

She stared at him, then nodded slowly. He let go of her, then, even though Malaya could see that he was reluctant to. As for Christa, she was so radiant that the younger doctor couldn't help. She rushed into her friend's arms and hugged her.

“I'm so happy for you,” she whispered.

“Thank you!” Christa answered with a teary smile. “I wanted to share it with you so much.”

“I know,” Malaya reassured her. “Oh wow. That's so huge.”

Hudson and Christa glanced switfly at each other.

"It is," they answered at the same time, offering her the same expression. They were grinning like fools in love.

Oh wow.

Dr Hudson retrieved some of his usual reserve and cleared his throat, a bit self-conscious, while Christa shook her head with a knowing and unrepentant smile. 

“Now, Dr Pineda, I presume that you don't feel as exhausted as you did a moment ago,” he suggested, deadpan as ever. “Why don't we all go get breakfast? We could talk, one example at random, about how many cops and paramedics have been hitting on _my_ girlfriend?” 

Breakfast was a happy affair, all the more since they had a couple of Bloody Marys with it. _A tradition_ , Christa had asserted, _Hector's are better, though_ , her boyfriend had claimed. Malaya had never interacted with Dr Hudson...Neal to her, now, on a personal level before. He was basically the same good guy he appeared to be during shifts, except that he was more relaxed and more prone to banter.  
When she got home afterwards, basking in the friendly company, Malaya knew that she would sleep well and have no nightmare; and didn't know how she could ever have imagined Christa with any man but a tall, dark and handsome British surgeon.

**Author's Note:**

> Too fluffy, maybe? Not quite sure about this one.  
> This was initially part of a multi-chaptered fic where different characters found out, but I nixed the idea.  
> I'm writing a follow-up, Neal/Christa POV only.  
> I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading !


End file.
